Black senator gets cops called on him for opposing Trump

It’s fairly common to have a politician in office who represents you literally, but not ideologically. In such cases, dissenters might run for office themselves, promote other politicians, and vote for who they think aligns with their own views.

One Brooklyn woman, however, decided to call the police on a New York state senator because the senator: simply spoke to voters, stated he was against President Donald Trump‘s immigration policy, and included a point about fighting back Trump on his campaign materials.

On Thursday, New York Sen. Jesse Hamilton (D-Brooklyn) shared a video of someone who identified herself as a Trump supporter lecturing a staffer of his that Hamilton shouldn’t have the phrase “Fight back Trump” printed on his campaign flyers.

“I support Trump, and I see the difference between Democrat and Republican, and I see the difference between you and Trump. You have no difference from all others, OK? So if I would not see this slogan…” the woman, who hasn’t been identified, tells the staffer.

“So you oppose Jesse because he opposes Trump? Is that what you’re saying?” Hamilton’s staffer, Raul Rothblatt, told the woman.

“This is should not be here. If they really want nation be as one and fight for the better life and live in the better life, you wouldn’t put this here. Because this is what Democrats do, exactly,” the woman responds as she points to the flyer.

A Trump supporter called the police on me today, my crime was speaking to constituents about immigration and Trump's racist policies.The pattern of targeting Black men and women for being Black and alive in the communities we all share has to stop. This pattern of calling the police on Black people going about their business and participating in the life of our country has to stop. From a student taking a break at Yale, to a student eating lunch at Smith College, to a child selling lemonade, to a person having a barbecue in Oakland, to an Oregon state legislator knocking on doors – the list goes on and on. I will continue to speak to neighborhood residents about the important work we must accomplish together – including changing a culture of targeting Black men and women for living while Black.

Hamilton told the New York Post he and his team were campaigning in a Crown Heights street corner in the early morning when the woman approached them and told them they shouldn’t be standing there. She also said they were “dividing people.”

The woman left, but the around 8 a.m., she called the police to complain that “Hamilton was against Trump’s immigration policy,” according to the Post‘s law enforcement sources. When the cops arrived, they explained to her that Hamilton didn’t break any laws.

“The pattern of targeting Black men and women for being Black and alive in the communities we all share has to stop. This pattern of calling the police on Black people going about their business and participating in the life of our country has to stop,” Hamilton wrote, evoking the stories of the white Yale dormmate who called the police on a Black student for sleeping in a common room, and “BBQ Becky,” who called the cops on Black Oakland residents grilling in a public park.

“I will continue to speak to neighborhood residents about the important work we must accomplish together—including changing a culture of targeting Black men and women for living while Black,” Hamilton concluded his post.

Samantha Grasso is an IRL staff writer for the Daily Dot with a reporting emphasis on immigration. Her work has appeared on Los Angeles Magazine, Death And Taxes, Revelist, Texts From Last Night, Austin Monthly, and she has previously contributed to Texas Monthly.